The present invention relates to a process for producing fabricated edible meat products, and in particular to a method of producing simulated meat of crab, lobster, shrimp or adductor muscle of shellfish with desirable texture and flavor, from mechanically deboned meat of fish or poultry.
The process of mechanically deboning of fish and poultry meat has received increasing attention during the last twenty years throughout the world in order to utilize efficiently nutritious proteinaceous resources, such as numerous underutilized marine species, fish trimmings and process wastes of cut-up chicken and processed turkey meat. The deboned meats are commonly comminuted to form Kamaboko, fish sausage, frankfurters, bologna, meat loafs and similar meat products having homogeneous texture. Many efforts have been made to produce more expensive, more acceptable fabricated products for human consumption from the mechanically deboned meat in order to upgrade the market acceptance. Among them, the most interesting and hopeful products are simulated meat of crab, lobster, shrimp, and adductor muscle of scallop.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,065 discloses a simulated crab meat molded product, Japanese Kamaboko, made from ground fish meat paste containing salt. The molded and crab flavored Kamaboko, which has jelly strength of 300 to 1500 g, is shredded into pieces ranging from 0.25 to 3.0 mm in width and up to 2.25 mm.sup.2 in cross sectional area, i.e. to correspond to the dimensions of muscle fiber of crab. The shredded pieces are often blended with ground fish meat paste as a binder and formed to crab leg shape, and then heated to set, in order to prepare a fabricated crab leg.
Japan Patent Publication No. 38,187/1981, discloses a fabricated sea food product prepared from minced fish meat ground with salt and suitable flavoring materials. The ground meat is shaped in the form of a thin film and cooked to set. It is then shredded to form strips and rolled up as a bar to resemble crab leg meat or scallop adductor muscle.
The Japanese restructured meat products made according to these patented processes simulate crab or scallop meat in appearance and in flavor; but their textures are quite different from those of real crab or scallop meat because such textures are undesirably elastic and the products have undesirably rubbery bite characteristics. Further, such products commonly do not have sufficient structural integrity to retain the shredded pieces together as a unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,017 discloses a fabricated sea food product prepared from comminuted fish meat and fish muscle fibers. Loose fibers are prepared by partially cooking fish meat. In addition, fresh fish meat is finely comminuted to a coagulable paste. The loose fibers and the paste are mixed and formed into desired shape. The shaped product is then heat set. The product is dry, lacking in succulence and has less cohesiveness than the above described simulated sea food products.